I'd recommend experimenting with different methods. There are about as many ways to tie on a hakama as there are folks who wear them. In my koryu training I tie it in a particular way as taught to me by my teacher, but if I tied it the same way during aikido training it would be at my ankles in no time. When I'm getting dressed for aikido, I tie on the koshita first, with its himo tied below my obi knot. Then I take my front himo and wrap it around the bottom of my koshita twice and finish with a knot in the front. I've heard from several people in this country that I'm doing it "wrong," but whenever I'm told that I have to smile a bit. I learned that method in Japan, and it was practiced by everyone at both dojo I attended there.

That has been an on going discussion. I see both ways and have done both ways. So they tie the back on first now in Japan? Straps wrapped around the outside?